Growing Beyond
by Epea Pteroenta
Summary: Rey Smith has landed her dream job, teaching Physics at Alderaan Grammar School but she has not been there a day when she realises that there's something rotten in the Alderaan education system and that something is centred around their rival school, Starkiller Academy and its enigmatic headmaster, Kylo Ren, puppet principal for the shady First Order multi-academy trust.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N:_ _Here it is, the Teachers AU nobody asked for! I've written four chapters so far and so I will aim to update regularly but I am a teacher myself and so if I am swamped at work and I get behind with writing, that might not always be possible._

 _There's a good chance many of you won't know much about the English educational system. I've tried to write it in such a way that the plot and setting are explained as needed but please do ask if something is unclear. I've learned so much about the US school system from reading fanfic, so hopefully nobody will mind me dragging you across the pond for this fic!_

 _Regarding ratings, the rating_ _may_ _go up to M - I'm not sure. However, I am not a smut writer and it makes me feel uncomfortable to write, so while this is going to be totally slow burn and there will be emotional (and some physical) pay-off, if you're looking for explicit smut, you've come to the wrong place. Sorry! I thought it best to say that here so that nobody is disappointed further down the line. Hope I don't lose too many readers for this._

 _And on that note, enjoy! :)_

* * *

"Our plan for this academic year is a simple one. Consolidate the First Order's hold over Alderaan's three secondary schools belonging to its trust, sign the documents relating to our take-over of the failing school, Central Primary, representing our expansion into the primary market and-"

Kylo's phone buzzed in his pocket.

"And formulate a strategy to bring the last remaining school in the local authority under the First Order's control, Alderaan Grammar School."

Kylo's eyes flickered down as he discreetly pulled his phone out and unlocked it. The message was from Hux.

 **In King's Head prepping for INSET with Phasma. Are you ever going to join us?**

His eyes flickered back up the shiny mahogany table in Lord Snoke's study, attempting to keep his expression impassive.

"Do you have anything to contribute, Ren?" Snoke asked, his momentary inattention not having gone unnoticed.

"Nothing, my lord," he replied. "Just wondering how much longer this meeting is going to go on for. Some of us have work to do before tomorrow."

A fruity chuckle came from his left. "Impatient boy," said Palpatine, an ex-politician and businessman with an offshore bank account or three, who now somehow found himself Headmaster of the flagship academy in Alderaan, Naboo High School. Kylo disliked him intensely.

"You mean you don't?"

"That's what deputies are for!" He raised his tumbler of whiskey in a toast. Maul, a tall, black man in his early 40s who never smiled and ran Mandalore Academy with a rod of iron, raised his own glass and clinked it against Palpatine's.

Kylo didn't bother responding. He just stood up. "If that's all…?" he addressed Snoke directly.

"Not quite, Ren," said the lord. "Sit down, boy."

After a moment of hesitation, his jaw working out his frustration, Kylo sat slowly.

"I want good results from Starkiller Academy this year. Your results this summer were disappointing. Very disappointing."

"They were the best the school's ever had! A 17% increase on what it was getting before First Order took it over and up 8% on last year's," cried Kylo, not being able to help pushing himself forward. "Since you put me in charge two years ago, I have-"

"Yes, yes, you're so _impressive_. Yet still twenty-three places behind Alderaan Grammar in the league tables," interrupted Snoke softly, his eyes fixed on Kylo. "They intrude on your catchment area. They take the best students who should go to Starkiller. If Starkiller is to succeed, your results must surpass theirs."

"Alderaan Grammar is one of the best schools in the country, my lord! With respect, you can't seriously expect us to surpass them in just two years."

"And yet I appointed you to do precisely that. Are you saying you are not up to the task, Ren?"

Palpatine and Maul were watching the exchange with great interest. Kylo slowly leaned back into his chair.

"No. My lord."

"I want Alderaan Grammar School, Ren. First I want it to fail. Then I want it for the First Order."

"As do I!"

"Then make sure that this time next year we are having a very different conversation, Ren. Otherwise it will be you who have failed. Dismissed."

Kylo stood up, grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and stalked round the table. As he came to Snoke's chair, he paused and looked down. "I won't let you down, Lord Snoke."

Snoke's unnaturally pale eyes stared back up at him, assessing him as they always did. "I'm sure you will not. Not my protégé, not Kylo Ren."

"Good luck with the first day back, Ren!" called Palpatine, breaking the connection between the two.

Kylo made a rough noise of acknowledgement and escaped the room without another word. Once outside, he stopped on the gravel drive to put on his heavy, black coat and pull up its collar as if in defence against the cold, despite the September evening being balmy and warm. He pulled out his phone to text Hux.

 **On my way. Been stuck at Snoke's.**

The King's Head was a cosy pub in the centre of town, about a twenty minutes' walk from the wealthy part of Alderaan where Snoke lived. Kylo didn't mind. He put in his earphones and shoved his hands in his pockets, setting off down the street at a brisk pace, a dark shadow moving swiftly between the glow of the street lamps.

He found Hux and Phasma in the back room of the pub, having commandeered a large table on which they had spread out papers and their laptops among discarded crisp wrappers and empty pint glasses.

"Fucking finally!" cried Phasma as he wove through the tables to join them. "Was he giving you a ten course dinner or something?"

"I wish. This round's on me."

He dumped his coat and bag at the table, went to the bar and returned a few minutes later with beers for the three of them and several different flavours of crisps and nuts. In the meantime, Hux had cleared some space for him.

"What news from the supreme leader?"

Kylo rolled his eyes at their nickname for Lord Snoke. "Results this August weren't good enough because we didn't beat the grammar school in the league tables and he needs us to do better this year. Or else."

"So I'm guessing you're leading with that in your welcome back speech tomorrow?" suggested Phasma sarcastically. "Very motivational."

"Fuck that," muttered Kylo into his beer. He had completely forgotten about his speech.

"You have written it, haven't you, Ren?" pressed Hux. "It's rather important. It sets the whole tone for the year, for what new staff think about the school…"

"Enlightening as always, Hux," he cut him off. "Have you drawn up a schedule for the day?"

Armitage Hux, Assistant Headteacher in charge of curriculum and other dry aspects of school life - anything, in short, which could be expressed in a complicated spreadsheet, loved nothing better than drawing up timetables. He pushed his laptop over to Kylo.

"Here you go. We start at 9am with your welcome speech. That goes on till 9.45 at which point-"

"I'm talking for _forty-five minutes_? What the hell, Hux?"

"You've got a lot to cover. Welcomes to new staff. All the results analysis, which I have prepared for you in a separate spreadsheet and emailed to you last week. The school development plan for the coming year. It will take longer than you think if you do it thoroughly."

"Fine. Then what? The fire bell goes off to wake everyone up?"

Hux pursed his lips at the jibe. "Then half an hour for Phasma to do her child protection refresher training. Then coffee in the canteen."

"Highlight of the morning!" put in Phasma.

"At 10.30 we have a special session I've organised on biohazard training with an outside company."

Kylo turned to Hux and fixed him with a blank look. "Biohazard training. For teachers."

"Sounds shit, right?" said Phasma quickly, who was rather better at reading Kylo's moods than Hux was. "It's for health and safety. What to do when a kid throws up, how to clean it up, how to dispose of needles or blood - that sort of thing."

"Do we really need some guys in hazmat suits to come and tell us at great expense what to do if a student has a nosebleed?" asked Kylo, his voice soft, his hands clenching into fists under the table. "Do you think our staff are _morons_?"

"I just thought that-"

"You are not paid to _think_ , Hux!" bit out Kylo and took a few deep breaths. "What's after lunch?"

"Tutor team meetings then I've arranged for a series of teaching and learning collaborative sessions."

"Cancel them," said Kylo. "No-one gives a shit. After the tutor team meetings make it department time."

Hux opened his mouth to argue but Phasma sighed and said, "Do it, man. Kylo's right. Plenty of time for that sort of thing later on. People need preparation time in their departments."

"If you think that's best." Hux grabbed back the laptop and made a big show of deleting several lines of text from his schedule.

Kylo slowly relaxed his hands, picked up his glass and drained the last of his pint. "I need to go. It seems you both have everything under control."

"Getting an early night, Ren?" wondered Phasma as he stood up. She had a glint in her eye that suggested she knew that he hadn't yet written his speech and therefore exactly why he was leaving.

"Something like that. See you both in the morning."

He walked home, earphones back in and hands shoved once more into his pockets. Having reached his flat, he flicked the lightswitch, dropped his bag to the floor, hung up his coat and flung himself backwards onto the sofa, relishing the silence and the solitude after the noise of the pub and Hux's inanities.

How other people actually managed to live with other people he simply didn't understand. People were awful.

But biohazard training for teachers? Trust Hux to come up with something so ridiculous. His shoulders shook and his lip twitched. Tomorrow would be fucking hilarious. He almost wished there was someone he could share the stupidity of it with.

* * *

Alderaan Grammar School. Rated in the top five schools for A Level results in the national league tables for the last ten years. Founded in 1587 by Queen Elizabeth I and now one of the few academically selective state schools left in the country. Admitted girls to the Sixth Form for the first time in 1992 and throughout the school eleven years ago. Current headmistress: Ms Leia Organa of the great Skywalker dynasty of educators.

All these impressive facts passed through Rey Smith's mind as she swung herself off her motorbike, parked round the back of the school on the first day of the autumn term, and locked her helmet to the handlebars. She looked up at the imposing redbrick Victorian building in front of her and took a breath as she walked round to the front entrance.

Over the doorway was the school's Latin motto: _non ignorantia sed scientia._

"Not ignorance but knowledge," murmured Rey, giving the inscription a nod. She did not understand Latin herself, but she had memorised the motto and its translation before her interview back in March and it wasn't the sort of thing you forgot, not when it was shortly followed by getting your dream job.

Once inside, Rey headed for the science labs. She left her coat and bag at the desk she had already made her own in the last few weeks of the summer holiday. She hung up her freshly ironed labcoat, running her hand almost protectively over its gleaming white material. Without the labcoat, she was just Rey, twenty-three years old, and nervous as hell about starting in a new school. But when she put the labcoat on the following day and faced her first class of new students, she would wear it like armour and her plastic safety spectacles like a mask and she would become Miss Smith, Teacher of Physics and perfectly capable, thank you very much.

Leaving the science staffroom, she went to find her pigeon hole and collect her planner, flicking through its blank pages and marvelling at it. So very soon, it would be filled with lesson plans, reminders and mark sheets for students who were currently just names on a database system. In the staffroom, she bumped into the Deputy Head, Poe Dameron, sticking schedules for the day in pigeon holes.

"Nice to see you again, Rey," he greeted her with a warm smile. "Hope it's all going well so far."

"It's brilliant!" she replied with a wide smile. "Everything's so - so _different_ from my previous school. It's all so clean and organised and - honestly, you have no idea how glad I am to be here!"

Poe laughed, a big, belly laugh. "And we're glad to have you on board with us. Sounds like the place you were at before wasn't so great."

Rey wrinkled her nose. "It was a dump. Behaviour was really bad and their discipline policy was awful. And senior management just didn't care."

"Bad luck," he murmured sympathetically. "Well, you'll find things very different round here. Our kids are really great and when there are problems, Leia and I have things locked down pretty tight. You'll get all the support you need. This is only your second year teaching, right?"

"Yes, I was an NQT last year. Not that I really got much mentoring."

Poe shook his head. "Mentoring new teachers is so important. If you're not going to do that, honestly, why are you in the job in the first place? Makes me so mad. You coming to the meeting? It's almost 9."

Rey nodded and they set off together for the hall and the start of the training day.

"Actually, you're really lucky you picked AGS to apply to. We're the only local authority controlled school left in Alderaan; all the rest belong to this multi-academy trust, the First Order, and trust me, you do not want to work for them."

"I know," said Rey, grimacing. "I live with Finn, you know, who came here from Starkiller Academy. He's told me all about them."

Poe's face lit up. "You're Finn's friend! Of course you are; that's how you came to apply in the first place. I remember now. And yeah, he was lucky to get out of their clutches and find a job here. Once you're in with them it's practically impossible to teach in Alderaan and not be in their power."

"You make them sound like the mob!" grinned Rey, her eyes darting everywhere as they walked down the main corridor, past display boards advertising musical clubs, sports teams, the dinner menu, student artwork and photos from school trips.

"You're not far off. Anyway, you'll hear enough about all that, I'm sure." He pushed open the door to the hall and gestured for her to precede him. They separated after that as Poe made his way to the front of the room, where his colleague, purple-haired Assistant Head Dr. Holdo, was connecting a laptop to the overhead projector. Rey hesitated on the threshold, nervous once more at the sight of so many unfamiliar faces, for she had not yet met most of the other teachers. Her palms began to sweat and she had to take several calming breaths. Surely Finn had arrived by now…

A hand stuck up in the air a few rows back and then her best friend and foster brother had stood up and was beckoning to her to join him. She rushed forwards with a relieved smile and sat down gratefully in the seat he had saved for her.

"You made it!" he exclaimed. "I started panicking when I didn't see you when I arrived. I mean, you should definitely have got here before me."

"I went to the lab and the staffroom first," she explained. "Picked this up." She indicated her planner with a touch of pride in her voice.

"Good for you, Peanut." He nudged her. "I'm so glad you're here and you're out of that dump you were at last year."

"Same for you. Another year free of Starkiller."

He gave an exaggerated shudder. "Never going back to that hellhole. Hey, you know what my friend who's still there texted me to say they have to do today?"

"No, what?"

"Biohazard training for two hours."

Rey snorted inelegantly. "Biohazard training? What the hell? Are they building a nuclear bomb over there?"

"I know, right? I mean, I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if they were but-"

"Shh. It's Leia."

The room was falling silent as the headmistress mounted the podium to begin her opening speech.

"Welcome to Alderaan Grammar School and to the start of a new academic year. It's lovely to see you all back and to welcome the new faces among you. I hope you all had a wonderful summer. We will start by reviewing the fantastic GCSE and A Level results that came out this August before we move onto our aims and objectives for the coming year."

* * *

 _Secondary school - school for children aged 11 (Year 7) to 18 (Year 13). Also called high school.  
INSET - a day of staff training when no children come to school.  
A Levels - exams taken by 18 year olds at the end of their school career.  
GCSEs - exams taken by 16 year olds.  
Sixth Form - the last two years of secondary school (Years 12 and 13). Students study for A Levels.  
NQT - Newly Qualified Teacher, someone in their first year of teaching after their training._

 _Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think and come and find me on tumblr at:_ _misscrawfords_ _._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Rey was exhausted.

She was a week into her first term at Alderaan Grammar and the summer holidays already felt a lifetime ago. She had been up late every night filling in her planner with names of students and making seating plans. She adjusted lesson plans for classes who were more advanced and smarter than the classes she had had at her previous school. On Thursday, she stayed late to hold try-outs for the Under 14 girls hockey team she was coaching as her extra-curricular responsibility before pouring over training schedules over Chinese takeaway until her eyes swam.

Friday morning, she had vowed to Finn that she would get an early night, but that was before Poe sent an email inviting everyone to celebratory end-of-the-first-week drinks in the local pub after school. How could she not go and miss an opportunity to get to know her new colleagues better? After all, her euphoria at how much she _loved_ her new job needed some outlet and it had been a very intense week.

And so she had found herself in the George and Dragon for one drink… and then a second… and then several more and at some point they ordered food and somehow she didn't get home till almost midnight, pushing her motorbike slowly along the road, her shoulder bumping against Finn's as he wheeled his bicycle next to her, both making an effort to walk in a straight line.

She loved her colleagues. Admittedly, she still hadn't even talked to most of them and she couldn't remember the names of everyone she had talked to but it was enough to know and like the ones she saw immediately around her. It was wonderful being in the same school as Finn, of course, but they hardly saw each other during the school day. As for the Physics department, it consisted of three other teachers, all middle-aged men. Rey didn't mind this, though, as they were all lovely and keen to support her in a way nobody really had before. Besides, on the second day, she met Rose Tico, the Physics lab technician. Rose was a similar age as her, had been at the school for three years already, and had outright squealed at learning she was the new Physics teacher.

"You can't imagine how excited I am that you're joining the department," she had cried. "I mean, they're all great guys, the other teachers, but it's like having three dads and, well, you can have too many dads, right? The jokes…!" She pulled a face and made a slicing motion across her neck.

Rey had smiled but privately she had disagreed. When you didn't have any father at all, the prospect of being surrounded by three sounded amazing. Nevertheless, she and Rose had latched onto each other and sat together at lunch, joined by Finn who had somehow never spoken to her before.

"Teachers and the technicians…" Rose had explained, "we don't really mix. Can be a bit lonely, being a techie."

"That's stupid," said Rey. "You're every bit as important as we are. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be able to do any experiments in my lessons."

So she had made sure that Rose had come out with them on Friday evening, which she eagerly agreed to do. In fact, if Rey did not meet a single other person in the school beyond her department, Rose and Finn and occasionally sharing a smile and greeting with Poe, she would be perfectly happy.

Saturday morning, she slept in and by the time she stumbled into the kitchen in her pyjamas to get some cereal, Finn had already left for the first rugby match of the year against Mandalore Academy. Sun streamed into the sitting room and Rey slumped on the sofa, relishing the first real moments of peace and relaxation since the start of term.

She quickly decided that it was too nice a day to spend inside, however, and after breakfast, she went for a run round the local park. Back at home, she opened her planner to get a start on the following week's lesson plans but she could not settle. This felt too much like all the bad habits she had got into the previous year of holing herself up indoors all weekend and allowing work to take over her life. This was a new year, a new start, a new Rey. She might have to do work but she didn't have to stay at home to do it, especially not on such a lovely day.

She packed up her books and laptop and made her way into the centre of town, eschewing her bike for once in favour of a walk, considering how good the weather was. Soon autumnal gloom would be setting in and she was determined to make good use of the sunshine while it lasted.

Alderaan was small cathedral city, barely worthy of its title, with an attractive centre of cobbled streets around the cathedral green. The grammar school's original site was close by, even if it had moved to a larger sight a little further out in the nineteenth century. Rey walked past the original building, now used for cathedral administration and a place for the choir to practise, and gave it a knowing nod. She was a part of the city's heritage now. Getting the job at the grammar school had given her a purpose and a connection to something worth being allied to for the first time in her life. She had never cared much for anywhere she had lived or worked before, but she felt she could really belong in Alderaan.

A sunny Saturday brought the tourists out to play but Rey avoided the common tourist traps and went to a place she had discovered the previous spring and been back to several times since. The cathedral cafe might be attached to the city's most distinguished attraction, but it was also tucked away in the cathedral crypt and very poorly advertised. It was rarely full, especially on a day when most people would want to sit outside or at least be near a window.

Rey got herself a mug of coffee and a scone and found her favourite place to work, the cafe's one sofa in the innermost room, pushed up against the rough, stone wall. She plugged in her laptop, kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the sofa, congratulating herself on having found a good spot. It was cool down here, welcome after she had grown warm from walking in the sun.

Although the outer room was reasonably full, only two other tables in this room were occupied. At one, a pair of elderly ladies were gossiping in hushed voices over large pots of tea; at another, a tall, young man was hunched up over some papers. He must have arrived only a few minutes before Rey, because she was still getting out her books when a waitress came through to the back area, calling out, "Sweet chilli chicken panini!" and the young man leapt up to claim it.

Rey managed to work reasonably solidly for about forty-five minutes, though both the other tables were rather distracting in their own ways. The cafe had no music so the old ladies' conversation, although quiet, was nevertheless often audible and Rey could not help occasionally tuning into the apparently scandalous and inappropriate lives and relationships of Anne and Janet's respective children. Meanwhile, the young man seemed to be struggling with whatever he was working on. He frequently let out a huff of irritation or flung himself back in the wooden chair that seemed too small for him, running his hands through his wavy, black hair as if to rid himself of some source of frustration.

Therefore, when Rey eventually got up to get another coffee, she passed close to his table and could not help glancing down at whatever he was working on in what she hoped was a subtle manner.

They were essays, some typed, some handwritten, which he was correcting using an elegant fountain pen with green ink.

"You're a teacher!" Rey blurted out, before she could help herself.

The young man raised his head and stared at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. He had the largest, darkest eyes she had ever seen.

"I mean, that is, so am I," she continued, inwardly cringing at how awkward she sounded. "Sorry."

"Right," said the young man after another long pause. He had an appealingly mellow voice. And then, when she continued to stare, "We don't have to have a conversation just because we're both teachers. It's a common profession. Don't feel obliged to stay. You can go and get your coffee now. I need to work." A faint flush was beginning to rise on his neck as he glared at her.

"Okay, thanks for nothing." Rey rolled her eyes, flushing too, and hastened out of the room towards the counter. By the time she had ordered, waited and collected her coffee, however, embarrassment at being dismissed by a relatively attractive man she had accosted out of the blue for no good reason that she could rationally explain had turned into annoyance. She might have been awkward, but she had been friendly. He had been _rude_!

When she returned to her sofa, she stopped by his table again. He looked up at her again. "What now?"

"Look," she began more firmly than she had spoken before, "I said I was sorry for disturbing you, but I was just trying to be nice. Teacher solidarity, right?"

"Sure, if you say so," he replied, still sounding as if he had no idea why she was talking to him. Rey was also beginning to wonder that herself but felt that having initiated a conversation she had to see it through.

"So, what do you teach?"

He moved his fountain pen off the pile of essays and held the top one up so she could read the title.

 _Discuss whether Hamlet is a coward or someone driven by his conscience._

"English then," Rey surmised. "Nice!"

He nodded once and his eyes briefly flickered over her. "You?"

"Physics."

His eyebrows rose. "That's unusual."

Rey's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"There aren't many female Physics teachers. You were probably hired to look good on their diversity reports."

He spoke in such a measured way that it took a moment for his words to sink in and when they did, Rey's jaw dropped. "Okay, that's bullshit," she snapped, her heart pounding.

He shrugged. "Not really. It's a well-known fact. And you're probably not even a real physicist. If you were, you'd be working in industry and earning twice as much. Most Physics teachers are actually biologists forced to teach Physics because of the shortage of properly qualified Physics teachers. Especially women. Women tend to prefer the soft sciences for some reason."

"You sexist troglodyte!" spluttered Rey in disbelief. Her mug of coffee shook in her hand. She swallowed. "I have _always_ wanted to be a teacher! I _care_ about my job! I _love_ my students! I bet you only fell into teaching because you couldn't think what else to do with an English degree!"

The young man blinked at her. "That's ridiculous," he muttered. "You don't know anything about me."

Rey took a deep breath. She was wasting her time here. She couldn't think why she'd even spoken to this pretentious prick in the first place. "Okay, you said you were busy. Have lots of fun marking all those long essays."

She stomped away from him, slammed her mug of coffee down on the table, shoved all her books and laptop back in her bag in a hurry, and crossed back across the room, abandoning her drink, still hot. She no longer wanted to work there.

Pausing before she left the back room, she suddenly turned round and called out in a low but distinct voice to the young man who had turned in his chair and was watching her with undisguised curiosity and animosity, "I bet your students hate you! And buzz off, Anne!" she added, seeing that the two old ladies had long since paused their gossip to watch the more interesting show going on before their eyes.

She sped out of the cafe, running up the steps and blinking into the sunshine, still feeling his dark, surprised eyes following her long after she had left the crypt.

Finn was home from his match and sprawled out in front of the Xbox by the time she stormed back into their flat.

"Hey, what's up, Peanut?" he asked, pausing the game when he saw her face.

She threw her leather jacket over a chair and flopped down next to him. "Met a jerk in the cathedral cafe. Pass me a controller; I want to blow something up."

Finn dug out the second controller from down the side of the sofa, saved his own game and booted up a new one for two players.

"What happened?" he pressed, once Rey was sitting forward, hunched over the controller and entirely engrossed in running through a forested landscape wielding a laser sword and swiping unnecessarily at trees that got in her way.

"Nothing really," she muttered, bringing down an entire tree and chopping it into bits as gold sparks shot across the screen before she continued, "There was this bloke sitting in the cafe and I realised he was a teacher because he was marking essays so I talked to him and he was well rude."

"Why'd you talk to him in the first place?"

"Dunno," replied Rey, doing a triple somersault onto a high rock, jumping up and down several times and then sawing a boulder in half. "Guess I felt the teaching love and wanted to share it. He didn't."

"Sorry. I guess not all teachers are like the ones at AGS. He didn't deserve you." Finn laughed suddenly. "You know, he was probably from Starkiller. They're all dicks there. What did he look like?"

"Tall," replied Rey and was then distracted by a hooded man in a mask appearing behind her. She did several largely pointless backflips before charging at him. "Dark hair."

She didn't want to add that he had been attractive in an unconventional way. Strange that she should have found him so, but she had. Until he had started speaking more than two words at a time, that is. Then the appeal had significantly decreased.

"Tall and dark. Really narrows it down, Reyna."

"Teaches English. Oh _fuck_." She jabbed hard at her controller, waving it around as it really was her laser sword.

"You are so shit at this game, Peanut. You have literally no technique."

"Then help me, dammit. We're meant to be a team and you're still pratting around at the temple."

"I got lost in the stone tunnels. Okay, coming to get you. Just hold him off. Try to, you know… try to…"

"Do this?" Rey slashed violently at the masked enemy and succeeded in wounding his arm.

"Ow. That hurt," said her antagonist's tinny voice, deadpan.

"Hell yes it did!"

"Wait, Rey - don't let your guard down! Oh damn."

A dialogue box appeared on the screen.

 _You have been captured by the Dark Prince. He is taking you back to the Black Castle for interrogation._

"Fuck my life!" cried Rey and threw down the controller with a sigh.

They sat in silence for a while and Rey rested her head on Finn's shoulder.

"Well," said Finn eventually, "I don't know who he was. A tall, dark, English teacher. I mean, that could be practically anybody. I don't even know who half the English teachers were at Starkiller. Out in the Games department, you don't mix so much with the academic staff."

"It's okay, I don't really care. I shouldn't let it get to me. He was just a jerk and I'm never going to see him again. It's just…"

"What? What did he say?"

She shrugged and snuggled closer to him. "Just stuff. It doesn't matter."

"Well, you ever see him again, you let me know and I'll kick his ass for you. Got it?"

She smiled up at him. "Got it. Love you, Finn."

"Love you too. Always."

It really didn't matter. That's what she told herself. If she didn't talk about it perhaps it would go away. It was nothing more than bad luck that he'd happened to have hit on two of her greatest insecurities in quick succession just after meeting her. Fortunately, the chances of their ever meeting again were slim.

* * *

 _A/N: They finally meet! I'd love to know what you think. :)_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Mitaka!" called Kylo Ren, striding into the school office at Starkiller Academy on Monday morning with the customary flair that he wore like a cape.

"Sir?"

"Pull up everything you've got on the Physics department."

If Mitaka was surprised by the request, he didn't show it. Kylo came round behind him to look at the computer screen over his shoulder.

A few taps on the database and Kylo had the personal details of the four members of the Starkiller Physics department in front of him. His eyes skimmed over the information quickly.

"All male? We have no female Physics teachers?"

"No, sir. But all bar one of the Biology department are women?"

Kylo didn't reply immediately but tapped his finger on the desk in thought. Mitaka exchanged quizzical glances with his colleague, Lusica, across the room.

"Did any apply?"

"Any what?"

"Women. To teach Physics," Kylo clarified, a touch of impatience in his voice. "Try to keep up. When the school became an academy two years ago, did any _women_ apply?"

"I don't think the system stores that information after a year. Data protection and-"

"Never mind."

"Sorry."

Kylo swept back round the desk as if he was going to leave and then he stopped.

"Mitaka, can you access the files on the other First Order schools in Alderaan?"

"A limited amount, yes," Mitaka replied cautiously.

"Good. Get me as much as you can on the Physics departments at Naboo High and Mandalore."

"Yes, sir."

While Mitaka accessed the database, Kylo prowled round the small office and Lusica hastily began typing nonsense into an email in order to look busy.

"Only very general information is available about teachers at the other schools."

"Names?"

"Here." Mitaka turned the computer monitor round so he could see the results.

Kylo bent down and let his eyes skim over a row of names. "This is Mandalore?"

"Yes."

Four full time teachers and one part time. One woman. Sarah Poltwhistle.

"No further details such as date of birth or title?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Unfortunate. And Naboo High?"

Mitaka brought up another list. Three teachers. Again, just one woman. Samantha Cooper-Ellis.

Kylo stared at the screen a few minutes more and then turned to go. "That's all, Mitaka."

"Anytime, sir."

He swept out of the office without another word just as the bell for morning break sounded. As soon as the glass door had crashed closed behind him, Lusica stuck her head round her monitor and hissed, "What was _that_ all about then? Do you think he's planning to fire someone again?"

"Ours not to reason why, Lucy," replied Mitaka in a lofty tone to conceal the fact he was just as confused as she was.

Meanwhile, Kylo weaved his way through the stream of students pouring out of lessons for break, his imposing figure and rank making his progress easy. He slammed the door of his office behind him, ignoring his PA trying to tell him that Hux was looking for him. He picked up his stressball and flung it at the wall several times.

Was the girl from the cafe a Samantha? Was she a Sarah? It was possible. Could her surname actually be Poltwhistle or Cooper-Ellis though? _That_ seemed unlikely somehow, though most people simply stuck with the name they were given at birth, no matter how little it suited them. Not everyone had had his luxury. He flung the little rubber ball with a bit more violence.

Of course, there was no reason to suppose the troglodyte girl, as he had taken to calling her in his head after that rather memorable insult, taught at either of the First Order's other schools. There were plenty of other schools in neighbouring villages and small towns whose teachers could perfectly reasonably come into Alderaan on a Saturday. There was even St Corellia's, the big private boarding school twenty miles out in the countryside. His old school. And of course there was always Alderaan Grammar, but he preferred not to imagine she taught there.

He sank back into his deep, leather-backed chair and tossed the stress ball up into the air and caught it again, his anger subsiding into a familiar level of frustration. Why did he want to find the girl from the cafe so much? She had barged up on him for no reason with an entirely undeserved perky smile, not once but twice. She was a girl of extremes - either stupidly happy or quick to anger. He wondered what she was like in the classroom; such emotion would not serve her well - if nothing else, she would be exhausted by the end of every lesson. Idealism and caring so much – such qualities were not sustainable. He did not rate her chances of staying long in the profession.

She was quite attractive though, he could not help reflecting, in the same way the sun was. Dazzling, full of burning energy and really rather weird when you got up close. What was up with the three buns? And was she actually a biker or did she just wear that creased brown leather jacket with all the patches on because she was some kind of millennial hipster wannabe? Not to mention the warm northern accent, unexpected so far down south.

Anyway, it hardly mattered. He'd put his foot in it by telling the truth, proving how ridiculously sensitive she was. She thought him a jerk now; well, she wasn't wrong. He threw the ball at the wall again just as Hux pushed open the door without knocking and ducked as the ball bounced barely a foot away from his head.

"Missed," snapped Kylo with a glare.

"You're like a bloody Year 8 with ADHD," retorted Hux. "You'll take an eye out one day."

"You could wear an eyepatch. It'd be an improvement." Kylo leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "What do you want?"

"I've been trying to get hold of you all morning. It's about the girls' tights."

Kylo opened one eye, squinted at Hux doubtfully and then closed it again.

"Some of the girls have been coming in either not in tights at all or in nude colour tights because of how warm it still is, but the school uniform regulations clearly state that when wearing the winter uniform girls should wear black tights of a minimum of 40 dernier. Now, the issue seems to be that-"

"Hux," interrupted Kylo without opening his eyes again, "are these girls in school?"

"Yes obviously, or they-"

"Are they attending lessons?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then I could not care less about their tights. Make a decision, Hux, I don't give a fuck. Or tell Phasma to deal with it if it becomes a pastoral issue."

"Hayley Whittaker in Year 11 is saying that wearing a uniform infringes on her human rights of self-expression and the tights are, and I quote, 'a tool of patriarchal oppression'. She's getting quite a following."

Hux's tone was disapproving and Kylo snorted slightly.

"Give her a lunchtime detention if you think it necessary – better still, send her to the library and make her read an actual book on human rights. Oh, and put her name forward for the charity committee. If she's so fond of social justice, she can start campaigning for things that actually matter - while obeying the rules of the school she is enrolled to attend."

"That is… quite a good idea," said Hux, reluctantly impressed. "Though I think we should consider suspension if her insubordination doesn't subside."

Hux always went straight for the worst punishments. It made dealing with genuinely serious offenses rather difficult. Kylo wondered if he could suspend _him_ merely for constantly grating on his nerves...

"It will. She'll rant about it online somewhere and be over it by the end of the week."

He could not believe they were still talking about tights. Sometimes he really hated his job.

Fortunately the bell went for the end of break before Hux could come up with any other inane problems to bug him with.

* * *

"So, how do you feel about the first match?" Rey asked.

It was Thursday and she had just finished the first hockey practice with her team. She was walking back to the PE department with the two girls who had volunteered to help her clear up, Steph and Rhiannon.

Rhiannon shrugged. "Pretty good. I mean, it's hard to say how we'll do, right, since it's the first match of the season. But I think we've got a chance, Miss."

"I just wish it wasn't against Starkiller Academy," sighed Steph.

"Are they a particularly good team?" Rey wanted to know, always curious about the rival school.

"They were last year. They had this one girl playing attack, Daisy, and she basically obliterated all of us. Sanjaana was in goal but she only blocked two goals that match."

"She was so amazing."

"Well, you're amazing too!" said Rey. "Time for payback, right?"

Steph and Rhiannon glanced at each other and laughed. "What are you suggesting, Miss?"

Rey wrinkled her nose. "Nothing dodgy. Just go out and play your best and make sure you win! That's all!"

"Yeah right," scoffed Steph, "no big deal!"

"Hey, a bit of optimism please! We got this, Miss!"

After they put the bibs and balls away and Rey locked up the kit store, she asked them, "Anyway, what's Starkiller like? Do you know anything about it beyond the U14 hockey team?"

"My sister Flick goes there," said Steph. "She's in Year 11 and she remembers it before it was an academy. She likes it much better now. They're really tough on discipline but, like, that's good. She actually learns stuff. Before, all the teachers were really bad and no-one cared."

Rey raised her eyebrows. That didn't exactly fit with the kind of things Finn had said. Then again, he had only known the school after it had been taken over by the First Order.

"Yeah maybe…" Rhiannon didn't seem so sure. "I know a guy there from the bus and he says they're really mean. Phones confiscated, working in silence, you do the smallest thing or make some random mistake and you're in detention and it goes on your record. It's a bit unfair. Like, sorry, Miss, but everyone messes up sometimes. It doesn't mean you deserve it to go on your school record."

"I guess it depends on what you did," replied Rey neutrally. She was more interested in finding out what the girls thought of the school than engaging with them in a moral debate about suitable school sanctions.

"There's this one teacher," continued Rhiannon, "Mr. Hux, who's a real - uh, anyway, he's really harsh apparently."

"I've heard of him!" said Steph. "This one time he gave Flick's friend Olly a Saturday detention because he caught him chewing gum. A Saturday detention! That would never happen here."

"Oh my God, that's so stupid."

"Okay," put in Rey, who wanted to shut down the trash-talking of other teachers, even ones at another school, and feeling a bit guilty for encouraging it, "I get the picture. You better go and get changed. I'll finish up here. Thanks for your help, girls!"

"Thanks, Miss! See you next week!"

* * *

"Tell me about Starkiller's Mr. Hux," said Rey to Finn that evening. "Would he give a boy a Saturday detention for chewing gum? Because that's what someone on my team said."

Finn snorted. "Probably. I doubt he has a social life 'cause nobody likes him so spending Saturdays at school terrorising kids who've basically done nothing wrong would probably be his idea of a great weekend. I definitely heard of Saturday detentions being a thing when I was there."

Rey poked at her spaghetti. "I don't get it. Starkiller's results are shooting up, I've heard people say it's the most efficiently run school in the city and these should be good things. Yet you were desperate to get out of it and Poe basically makes the sign to ward off the devil whenever it comes up in conversation. What's up with it?"

"Well, you know who else were really efficient at what they did and got quick results?"

"Who?"

"The fricking Nazi party! Look, Rey," continued Finn when Rey started protesting at the comparison, "I hated working there because I was constantly being micromanaged. I teach PE for God's sake! It's not exactly rocket science. You actually teach rocket science so you get what I'm saying. You have to deal with all the marking and reports and predicted grades and getting them into Oxbridge and all that shit. End of the day, I just teach boys to kick balls around a field. There was no need for them to be breathing down my neck the way they were. So many rules! So many ways to get into trouble - and that's just the teachers. Also, and I really mean this, the senior leadership team are genuinely unpleasant people. There's Phasma who is like what would happen if you crossed Brienne of Tarth with the Terminator, Hux's nickname is - and this is true, I swear to God, 'Ginger Hitler' and it's accurate too, and Kylo Ren is the kind of creep who lives in his mum's basement and thinks Snape is misunderstood and then somehow becomes headmaster of a school, fuck knows how."

"And yet you decided to leave!" smiled Rey, shaking her head in amusement.

"I know. Weird, right?"

They ate in silence for a few minutes and then she continued, "Okay, so that explains why you wanted out and that's totally fair, but why does Poe hate them so much? He's never taught there."

"Ask him," replied Finn. "I think it's political and I try and keep out of that side of thing. Like I said, I'm just a PE teacher. Doesn't really affect me."

She wrinkled her nose. "End of the day, politics affects all of us. No-one can afford to be neutral."

He poked her. "Eat your pasta, Hillary. Like I said, you want to know the deets, talk to Poe directly."

This was exactly what Rey decided to do. She caught Poe in the canteen on Monday and tried to quiz him, but lunchtime was not a good time for a deep conversation. Instead, he told her to come to the George and Dragon on Friday and they could have a proper chat about it. The week seemed to pass very slowly after that as Rey waited until Friday.

* * *

 _A/N: Year 8 - 12-13 year olds. (7th grade)_

 _Year 11 - 15-16 year olds. (Sophomore year/10th grade)_  
 _Oxbridge - shorthand for Oxford and Cambridge universities, Britain's most prestigious institutions, the equivalent of the Ivy League._

 _For those wondering, I sort of imagine Alderaan situated in a fictional county in the south of England, sort of between Surrey and Hampshire. I have various cathedral cities like Ely, Winchester or Canterbury in mind for Alderaan._

 _A bit of a filler chapter but some necessary character development. This is a slow burn - they're not going to meet every chapter... But next chapter Rey will actually venture onto Starkiller land for the hockey match!_

 _Hope you're enjoying it! Thank you so much for the reviews and favourites. :)_


	4. Chapter 4

After school on Friday saw Rey, Poe, Finn and Rose cramming themselves into a booth in the George and Dragon with a fortifying round of beers and crisps to see them through the discussion to follow. Finn had come because Rey had made him, determined to snap him out of his apathy about the wider impact of where he worked and Rose had come because, well… Rey suspected she was there because she liked Finn.

"I'm not saying I just want to hang out with him because he used to be a pro Rugby player," she had insisted earlier in the week. "But you have to admit it's very cool that he is. I never had any reason to talk to him before but he's your friend and now I'm your friend too so I'm not going to pass on the opportunity, know what I mean?"

"You should ask him for his autograph," Rey had responded, only half joking.

" _Could_ I?"

Rey had shrugged. The premature end of Finn's career playing rugby for England thanks to injury remained a sore point but she suspected a bit of female hero worship wouldn't be such a bad thing for him.

Poe bought them all drinks and they settled down.

"Okay," he began, "you're here because you want to know exactly why First Order is such a terrible organisation. Am I right?" He addressed them all but it was Rey he was really looking at.

"Yes. I get that Finn hated working at Starkiller because he didn't like the leadership. But I feel like this goes beyond that because I hated my last school and bad leadership is hardly unusual in schools - no offence."

"None taken!" retorted Poe with a grin.

"And if I'm going to stay in Alderaan I need to understand what's going on. Tomorrow is my first hockey match and it's against Starkiller. The girls understand their opponents better than I do at the moment."

"Right, that's fair. Finn, you will know more than I do about specifics regarding Starkiller so feel free to ."

"Eh, I guess I want to know what the big deal is too," shrugged Finn. "If I'm being honest, I just left for personal reasons. But I wouldn't mind feeling justified in hindsight!"

"Trust me, you will." Poe took a swig of beer. "So, flash back time. It's fifteen years ago and Alderaan had four secondary schools - the grammar school, Naboo High, Mandalore Street School and St. Thomas' High, all in local authority control. Academies were just getting off the drawing board under the Labour government, influenced by Lord Vader."

"Lord Vader?" interrupted Rose.

"Anakin Skywalker, former education secretary under Thatcher - one of the most influential ones we had, got promoted to the Lords and subsequently weaselled his way into Blair's inner circle. Academies were basically his brain child for improving education. Thatcher was out before she could adopt the idea but Blair took the bait."

"Wait," interrupted Rey. "This Anakin Skywalker - like, I have heard of him, of course. But isn't he…"

"Leia's father, yep."

"Right." They all took a moment to assess the situation. "Go on," Rey continued. "So Leia's father is responsible for the academy scheme. I pretty much already knew that though I hadn't really consciously thought about the fact that Anakin Skywalker is Lord Vader is Leia Organa's father."

"The real mystery here is why everyone has so many names," complained Rose into her cider. "It makes everything far too complicated."

"Welcome to the Skywalker dynasty!" said Poe. "Take a drink every time you discover a new one where you weren't expecting it! Anyway. Naboo High was one of the first schools in the country to voluntarily convert to an academy. This guy, Palpatine, poured a load of money into it because his niece had gone there once upon a time or something. It seemed to be a success - smartened up with a new uniform, new sports centre, donations to the library, all that shit. But about five years later, along comes Lord Snoke. An old business crony of Palpatine's – I don't know what exactly - and by this time, mind, we are starting to realise that academies aren't all they're cut up to be - taking power away from teachers and local councils and into the hands of businesses and so on. Snoke takes over Mandalore Street and rebrands it as Mandalore Academy, replaces practically all of its staff almost overnight and within six months, he takes over Naboo High from Palpatine. Oh, Palpatine's still nominally in charge there as Headmaster, but he's in partnership with Snoke or a puppet - honestly, I don't know what goes on in their board meetings. Snoke creates the First Order, a multi-academy trust."

Rey was listening attentively, frowning slightly. "Okay, I'm with you so far. This is just standard business practice for academies, right? I guess I'm not old enough to really remember what education was like before them. What's wrong with taking mediocre schools and making them better? I don't mean to play devil's advocate but what exactly is the problem?"

"The problem is lack of accountability, Rey. It's privatisation by the back door. Snoke is getting government tax money in order to do whatever the hell he likes in these schools. And Starkiller - St. Thomas' as it was - didn't even have any choice. After Naboo High and Mandalore were taken over, St. Thomas' became the dumping ground for the kids who failed to get into AGS or either of the smart new academies. Nobody wanted to work there - sorry, Finn, but you know it's true - and then OFSTED came along, graded them Inadequate and told them they had to convert to an academy or close down. So Snoke swoops in, just like he'd clearly been planning to do all along and does just what he'd done with Mandalore. So now he has three out of the four schools in Alderaan. You disagree with his business practices and unless you pass the 11+ to get into AGS or your parents are rich enough to send you to St. Corellia's, you're stuck."

"And are Snoke's business practices so bad?"

"Of _course_ they are!" cried Rose suddenly. "I just looked him up - do you want to know what his salary is as CEO of First Order is? It's over £150,000 and you can bet he doesn't pay his teachers more than the normal rate and let's not even consider the support staff! Honestly, fuck capitalism." She drained her bottle.

"Well, shit," said Finn, expressing how they all felt as they considered their status and their salaries.

After a few moments of depressing silence, Rey spoke again. "So Alderaan Grammar is the last bastion of traditional state education in this town. I think I'm starting to understand."

"And you can bet First Order don't like that," agreed Poe. "We're next on Snoke's hit list."

Finn nodded. "They'd joke about it in the staff room at Starkiller, about taking over the grammar school and sticking it to us."

"But that's not going to happen, right?" said Rey, looking between them all. "Alderaan Grammar is one of the top schools in the country! It's never not been rated Outstanding by OFSTED so nobody is going to force it to convert and I can't believe Leia would just hand it over to Snoke."

"No, she won't," Poe said, "but frankly it's not that simple. The government wants all schools to become academies within the next few years and there will be financial incentives to do so. Financial penalties for those that don't. School finances are already so stretched…" He trailed off with a shrug. "It's tricky, but Leia will keep fighting. And so must all of us."

"Anyone else think it's ironic," said Rose suddenly, "that the daughter of the founder of the academy system is one of the principal objectors to converting her school to an academy?"

"Oh, it's ironic alright."

* * *

 _Into the clutches of the enemy_.

This was what Rey could not help thinking as the minibus containing the Alderaan Grammar boys and girls U14 hockey teams with their coaches pulled into the gates of Starkiller Academy the following morning. It was a crisp and clear but cold autumn day - perfect for sport in fact. Rey was looking forward to supporting her girls but she was also keen for the opportunity to see Finn's previous school and perhaps get a sense of what the First Order stood for.

Since St. Thomas' had ceased to exist and turned into Starkiller, the entire school had been torn down and rebuilt with sleek, modern, chrome buildings - mostly shiny and black with touches of red. Compared to the grammar school with its Victorian main building and a jumble of secondary buildings that had appeared over the decades as they were needed, Starkiller looked impressive.

Impressive but soulless, Rey decided, as she could not see a single sports bag left out over the weekend on the playground or football stuck in a tree. They drove round to the sports fields at the back and the students were tipped out to find the changing rooms and get ready to warm up.

Rey, huddled in her blue AGS tracksuit to keep warm, wanted to explore and used finding the bathroom her excuse to wander off. She skirted the astroturf, smiling vaguely at the knots of dedicated parents who had already arrived to cheer their children on and were clustering around a marquee where PTA volunteers were selling tea, coffee and bacon sandwiches.

The main building was open and she entered quietly, walking down a corridor decorated in the Starkiller black and red until she reached the main atrium and saw the sign for visitor toilets. Having availed herself of the facilities, she wandered back into the atrium and over to a cabinet displaying the school's trophies. They were good at sport, she realised and began to feel somewhat worried for her team.

"Hello?" said a voice behind her and Rey spun round to see a tall, glamorous woman dressed in a grey trouser suit, wearing heels that made her even taller. "Are you lost?"

"Hello! Sorry, I'm from Alderaan Grammar with the girls hockey team. I was just admiring your wins."

The tall woman approached the case. "Yes, we are good." She sounded smug. "But perhaps this will be your year. You never know!"

"My girls are good too," Rey retorted, tilting her head to look up at her and refusing to be intimidated. She felt very aware that she was in a rather muddy tracksuit and trainers with no make-up next to someone who was so immaculately put together she could have been a model.

She got a faint smile for that. "I'm sure they are. I'm Ms Phasma, Deputy Head of Starkiller Academy." She held out a hand.

Rather surprised, Rey shook it. "Rey Smith, I teach Physics at AGS. And coach the U14 girls, obviously."

Ms Phasma raised one eyebrow. "Ray? That seems appropriate for a Physics teacher."

"You know, nobody has _ever_ made that connection before!"

Now she laughed. "I deserve that!"

Rey laughed too and wondered how it was happening that she was joking around with the Deputy Head of the Starkiller. This did not fit with Finn's description of the school or of Phasma. Except the Brienne of Tarth comparison - that was startlingly accurate.

"What does your motto mean?" she asked abruptly, nodding to where it was emblazoned in gold at the top of the display case.

" _Vis me liberabit_? 'Strength will set me free'."

Rey snorted. "Quite a motto! Good thing it's not in German. What? It's pretty sinister," she added as Ms Phasma was giving her an odd look.

"It's just… one of my colleagues said exactly the same thing when Lord Snoke first decided on the new motto. Nobody else seems to have made that connection."

Rey didn't know what to make of that or how to continue the conversation. She had never been good at small talk and Phasma intimidated her no matter how she pretended she didn't. Perhaps she had been rejoicing too soon after one brief moment of shared humour. "I should get back to my team, warm them up."

"Of course. Nice to meet you, Ray."

"You too, Ms… Phasma."

Rey scuttled off down the corridor as quickly as she could, inwardly chastising herself for her awkwardness. She felt less like a confident teacher on a visit to another school and more like a naughty schoolgirl, caught truanting. Nor was it helped that she was obliged to call Phasma by her formal title but she was just 'Rey'. She should have introduced herself as 'Miss Smith' but who _did_ that? She should have… she should have…

No time for berating herself. Her team were kitted out in blue and white and ready to hit the pitch. Rey grabbed her hockey stick and led them out for warm-ups, finding her energy and enthusiasm when she needed it.

By the time the match kicked off, Rey had put her encounter with Phasma behind her and turned into the supportive coach she needed to be for her team. The warm-up had got her blood going and now she kept warm by dancing around on the side of the pitch with a keen eye for the technique of the players, trying to pick up on anything she could use to give praise at the end of the match or to help them improve in their next practice. By half time the girls' teams had drawn 4-4. Rey jogged over to the refreshments marquee for a polystyrene mug of tea before coming back to a team huddle. If she was honest with herself, they were doing better than she had expected after seeing the Starkiller trophy cabinet. They could win this game.

The second half started and some of the spectators who had been watching the boys' match drifted over to the more exciting girls' match. Rey's hair was coming down in a wild mess and her throat was hoarse from screaming encouragement when she looked straight across the pitch and saw an unpleasantly familiar face standing next to Ms Phasma on the Starkiller side.

It was the English teacher she had crossed swords with in the cathedral cafe a few weeks before. Now that he was standing up, she could fully appreciate the size of him, dwarfing even Ms Phasma. He was dressed all in black again, muffled in a long trench coat and scarf like Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock, and he was staring straight at her. Rey stilled and straightened, taking her weight off her hockey stick and, seeing him still looking at her, she raised one hand and gave him a small, sarcastic wave across the pitch. There was a moment of complete silence in which Rey held her breath, wondering how he would react, before he removed one hand, encased in a black glove, from his pocket and raised it in an unmoving salute.

A whistle blew and Rey dragged her eyes away from the ghoulish presence on the other side of the pitch. The match was over: Starkiller had won 7-6. Disappointing, but AGS had fought well and it was hardly a crushing defeat. Rey turned away from the pitch with one backwards glance across the expanse of astroturf and went to console her team.

At least now she knew he was a teacher at Starkiller. Of course he was. Another reason to avoid the place.

On the other side of the pitch, Phasma turned to Kylo and said curiously, "You know her?"

"Who? Oh, her. No, not really. I bumped into her once. Why, who is she?"

"Her name's Ray Smith. She teaches Physics at AGS."

"Her name's Ray and she teaches Physics?"

"I know. Sounds fake, right?"

"She probably changed it. Ray Smith. Nobody is born with that name."

Phasma rolled her eyes. "Takes one to know one, _Kylo Ren_."

"Fuck off, _G Phasma_. How do you know her?"

"Caught her admiring our trophies earlier. She objects to our motto, incidentally."

Kylo scrunched up his face. "So she has good taste. It's a terrible motto. I'm surprised none of our Jewish families have complained yet, actually. One good consequence of nobody understanding Latin these days."

"Well, that's - Oh, good morning, Mrs. Holt. Archie played so well today! You must be so proud."

Phasma turned away from him to speak to a parent and Kylo was able to stare across the pitch again to catch a sight of the girl, but she had disappeared inside the changing block with her team.

Ray. Her name was Ray. Ray Smith. It was a stupid, fake-sounding name but somehow the realisation that he was not alone in having changed his name warmed him to her more than anything else could have done. It made him curious to know more about who she was and where she had come from. Why he was so interested, he hardy knew. There had just been a _something_ about her, something that had stuck in his mind long after she had rushed out of the cafe. Perhaps it was because she had come to him initially, perhaps it had been her passion or just the fact that she had called him out, straightforward and direct without any of the sarcasm that characterised so many of his interactions with Hux and Phasma.

So of course she had to be a teacher at Alderaan Grammar School. His mother's school. It was just so typical. With a swirl of his coat, he turned on the spot and stalked off back to the main school building, blanking a parent who wanted to speak to him. Let Phasma deal with her. He had spent quite long enough at school for a Saturday morning.

* * *

 _A/N: Apologies for all the exposition at the beginning of the chapter! It's necessary for the setting and I hope it isn't too bad._

 _Obviously I've changed the origins of academies a bit to fit this universe but the principles of it and the reasons they are objecting to them are basically accurate. The lack of accountability and power of multi-academy trusts and the salaries of their CEOs is a very real issue in England at the moment. Support your teachers, folks! As I understand it, the system in the US is as messed up as it is here if not more. Of course, Poe has his own perspective and there are other ones..._

 _OFSTED - the school inspection organisation. Universally hated and feared. Grades schools from Outstanding down to Inadequate. Think Umbridge.  
_ _11+ - exam taken in the final year of primary school to get admission to grammar schools which are academically selective. Now optional now that there are very few grammar schools.  
_ _U14 - Under 14 i.e. a sports team of 13 year olds.  
_ _PTA - Parent Teacher Association.  
_ _Vis me liberabit - Rey and Kylo object to its similarity to Arbeit Macht Frei (Work will set you free) written above Auschwitz Concentration Camp. There's an Easter egg in the Latin mottos of both Starkiller and AGS..._

 _Thank you for the reviews and kudos. Find me on tumblr if you ever want to chat: misscrawfords._


	5. Chapter 5

It was over a week after the hockey match against Starkiller Academy. Rey was doing some desultory marking in the Physics office during her lunch break, picking at her pasta salad, when George, her head of department, poked his head round the door.

"Got a minute, Rey?"

Anything to distract her from Year 10s who could not spell "amperes". She drew up a stool for him.

After a few minutes in which George asked her how she was getting on and Rey was suitably enthusiastic about her first few weeks in the job, he brought up the real reason he had wanted to speak to her.

"You were probably involved in the Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge at your last school, weren't you?"

Rey nodded. "I remember that it happened. It was at St. Corellia's last year, wasn't it? I remember we sent a team, but I didn't go. We didn't win."

"Yes, AGS won. We win most years, to be honest. And this year it's our turn to host it."

"Here? Wow, that's cool!"

George smiled indulgently. He really was like a friendly bear, Rey sometimes thought. "Yes, it is. And I was wondering if you would be interested in organising it."

Rey's eyes widened. "You want _me_ to organise the Junior Physics Challenge? I've only been here a month!"

"It'd be a lot of work, mostly rather dull, but it's not difficult. It will be a good first step in organising events and trips."

"I would love to!" She absolutely beamed at him. At her previous school she had never been given any responsibility and she was longing to prove herself. "What will I have to do?"

"Oh good, I was afraid I would have to do it again and I'm ready to hand over the baton to someone with fresh ideas… You'll need to book the hall for the day - I'll have to look up the exact date but it's a Wednesday at the beginning of December - you'll get half a day off timetable. You'll need to find guest judges and prizes and sponsorship and you'll need to invite all the schools in Aldershire. Tedious stuff but the kids love it so it's worth it. The theme this year is forces, so you can do a lot with that."

Rey's mind was already running ahead in planning creative and interesting interpretations of "forces". "I'm on it! I'm _so_ on it. Leave it to me!"

George heaved himself off the stool and briefly squeezed her shoulder before leaving her. "That's what I was hoping you'd say. I'll email over all the details and let me know if you need any help."

"Will do."

Rey put her lunch away in a desk draw and her Year 10 marking on top of another pile of not yet marked example sheets. She had fifteen minutes before afternoon registration to start looking for sponsors and she intended to do as much as she could.

In fact, most of the organisation was relatively straightforward. George had lists of who they had approached when they had hosted the competition before and most were happy to be involved again in a such a good way of promoting Physics to children. The most tedious job was emailing the Physics departments of all the schools in Aldershire (including her old department, which felt slightly awkward) to get confirmation of their attendance.

She should have known it was going too well. Starkiller Academy - of _course_ it would be Starkiller - did not have any contact details for its individual departments on its website. For any enquiries, the website invited her to contact the Assistant Head, Armitage Hux.

"Great," Rey muttered to herself. "Emailing Ginger Hitler… what could possibly go wrong?"

 **From:** rsmith at ags dot sch dot co dot uk  
 **To:** amh at starkiller dot org  
 **Subject:** Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Mr. Hux,

I am writing to you about the Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge, held this year at Alderaan Grammar School on Wednesday December 5th. Please could you ask your Head of Physics to get in touch with me at rsmith at age dot sch dot co dot uk to confirm their attendance?

Kind regards,  
Rey Smith (Miss)  
Teacher of Physics, Alderaan Grammar School

Well, nobody could object to that email, even the pickiest of pedants. She hit 'send' and waited for a reply.

And waited.

After a week, during which time nearly all of the other schools had replied to her and organisation was progressing nicely, she had still heard nothing from Starkiller. Her feelings towards the school and Hux especially were not the pleasantest.

"Who does he think he is?" she ranted to Rose. "Does he think he's so above us he can't even be arsed to reply to me?"

"Probably," replied Rose frankly. "I mean, this is Starkiller we're talking about. Or perhaps Hux passed on the message and it's the Head of Physics who's being slow."

Rey shook her head. "I'm emailing again. And I'm going to get shirty on them."

"Ooh, look at you being badass!"

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** amh  
 **Subject:** Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Mr. Hux,

I emailed a week ago about the Junior Physics Challenge, this year held at Alderaan Grammar School, as you can see in the message below. I have not yet heard anything from your Head of Physics. If you do not wish your school to take part, please let me know as soon as possible. Or will we have the pleasure of welcoming the Starkiller team in December?

Kind regards,  
Rey Smith (Miss)  
Teacher of Physics, Alderaan Grammar School

"You get a tad bitchy at the end," Rose said, reading over her shoulder. "Are you sure that's wise?"

It had rained persistently every day that week and she had burned her hand on a Bunsen burner on Wednesday. "I'm feeling a tad bitchy."

She pressed 'send'.

And waited.

Oxbridge and medicine university application deadlines were approaching and for several days Rey did not have time to think about the Junior Physics Challenge. Accompanied by a soundtrack of rehearsals for the school's musical production of _Anastasia_ going on in the Music department whose windows were near the science block, Rey proof-read personal statements and provided information for references as best she could when she had only been teaching the students since September. On Friday, however, with the early applications sent off and everyone able to breathe a sigh of relief after a very stressful week, Rey checked up on the replies she had received over the last few days.

Nothing from Starkiller.

"I am _through_ with them," she exclaimed to Rose as she looked up from her inbox. "Screw Hux. Screw Starkiller. I would just say we'll leave them out of the whole thing except it's unfair on the kids who might want to take part. It's not their fault their administration is terrible."

" _But royalty is royalty, one always has to wait_!" sang Rose, who had been half dancing round the office with a tray of wires to the sound of a major chorus rehearsal.

Rey rolled her eyes. "OK, Barbra Streisand. Honestly, I don't know how you stand hearing all these songs over and over again. I loved _Anastasia_ as a child but I'm ready to never hear _Once Upon a December_ ever again."

"Nooo, don't say that! I'm going to play in the band - you have to come and see us! AGS musicals are also the best; you should have seen _Grease_ last year! It was _so_ good."

Rey thumped her head on the table as after a pause a piano could be heard starting up again and soon a chorus began singing _The Press Conference_ for about the fifth time that lunchtime. "Fine. I'll come and see you play in the band if you just stop singing along with them now."

As Rose squealed with pleasure and tried to ask her in a subtle way if she thought Finn would come too, Rey turned her attention back to her computer.

"I'm going straight to the top, over Hux's head. This is a matter of principle now. I am going to get a response from Starkiller if it's the last thing I do. Now, what's his email?"

She opened the Starkiller Academy website.

"Whose?"

"Kyle O'Ren's. The headmaster's. And if it gets Hux in trouble, all the better. Huh."

"What?"

Rey squinted at the website and shrugged. "It's not Kyle O'Ren. It's _Kylo Ren_. Never seen it written down before. I thought he was Irish. Now I just think he's got a weird name."

"Weird name for a weird guy? Have fun roasting his deputy, Rey; I need to go set up for the practicals this afternoon."

She disappeared out into the adjacent classroom and Rey opened up a new email, typing rather more forcefully than usual.

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster at starkiller dot org  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Mr. Ren,

I am writing to you because I have emailed your assistant, Mr. Hux, twice now about the Junior Physics Challenge that is going to be held at Alderaan Grammar School this December and received no acknowledgement of my email or had any contact from your Head of Physics. You can see my two emails below.

It is frustrating not to receive any response from your school when I am simply trying to do something nice to inspire students with a love of Physics and I would like Starkiller students to be involved. If you do not wish them to come to the competition, it would be a courtesy to let me know. I am left with a poor opinion of your administration and the usefulness of your website that does not allow for direct contact with your Physics department.

I look forward to hearing from you very shortly.

Kind regards,  
Rey Smith (Miss)  
Teacher of Physics, Alderaan Grammar School

"Kind regards - and _fuck you_ , Mr. Ren."

She pressed 'send'.

* * *

The phone rang and, suppressing a sigh, Kylo lowered the baguette he was about to take a bite from.

"Ren."

"Lord Snoke is on the line, Mr. Ren," said his PA.

Of course he was. Because this was just what a day needed that had started with double Year 8 reading _Romeo and Juliet_ and failing to understand even the most basic aspects of the play and had continued with chasing after the final early entry UCAS forms to sign off.

"Put him through."

Kylo sat up straight. Snoke could not see him down the telephone but it was an instinctive response.

"Kylo Ren. I want to hear your Oxbridge numbers."

"Twenty-one for Oxford and nine for Cambridge," said Kylo, who had been staring at applications and references so much that week that he did not need to look it up.

For a moment Snoke was silent and Kylo barely breathed.

"Twenty-one is satisfactory but tell me, why are there so few applications for Cambridge?"

"I don't know, my lord. I suppose the students didn't want to apply there so much this year."

"You _suppose_? Last year, there were thirteen applications to Cambridge."

Kylo clenched his fist under the table. "It's a different year group. Different students. Different priorities."

"Priorities that seem not to involve aiming high to elite institutions. May I remind you that Cambridge regularly surpasses Oxford in the league tables. Hardly what I would expect from an ambitious school like Starkiller Academy."

"You know, Snoke, it is possible to get a good degree from universities that aren't Oxford and Cambridge. You can't make students apply somewhere they don't want to."

"Yes, you know all about the worth of a degree from Oxford, don't you, _Benjamin Solo_?"

His voice was barely more than a crackle down the line but every word was distinct and hit Kylo like a poisoned dart. His grip on the telephone receiver was so strong his fingers ached with the effort. He swallowed.

"I spoke out of turn," he whispered, crumbling and cringing in his executive chair. "I'm sorry the numbers aren't what you wanted, Lord Snoke."

"They are not. I do not care about superficial differences between students and year groups. Students are guided by their teachers and it is up to you as Headmaster to set the tone for the school. If they are not aiming high, if they are not applying to the prestigious universities you want them to, then that is a fault with the leadership. Young people need guidance. Your students should look to you. They should look to you _as you looked to me._ They will thank you for it later."

"Yes, Lord Snoke." He closed his eyes briefly.

"You forget yourself and all I have done for you. Do you think you would be where you are now without me?"

"No," said Kylo after a pause, in case Snoke had not yet finished speaking.

"You would have been _nowhere._ "

He did not reply.

"Repeat it, Ren."

"I would have been nowhere."

As he spoke, Outlook pinged as a new email arrived in his inbox. Kylo, too miserable and focused on the telephone conversation, ignored it.

"And yet here you are - Headmaster of Starkiller Academy in your early thirties. I have put you on the path to greatness - not even your grandfather Lord Vader achieved so much so early. But now it is all up to you. Of course, if you want to throw away all my hard work-"

"I don't want to do that."

"I'm glad you see sense. Now tell me, Ren, do you know what Alderaan Grammar's numbers are this year?"

"It's only the deadline today. How am I supposed to know that?"

"Find out. I hope for your sake that it is lower than yours."

Kylo opened his mouth to say something - anything - about how unfair that was. Alderaan Grammar was a prestigious, academically selective school with a centuries' old reputation whereas Starkiller Academy was a two year old unselective institution built from the ashes of a failed school. How could they possibly compete? Snoke, as so often, wanted the impossible.

But there was a click and the line was disconnected. Kylo gently replaced the receiver and passed his hands over his face in exhaustion. Then he picked up the nearest thing to hand, a jam jar containing several pens and a pair of scissors, tipped the stationery out and hurled it across the room where it made a satisfying shatter against a bookcase.

Feeling slightly better, he picked his baguette up again and turned his attention idly back to his computer and the new email that had come in while he had been on the phone, trying to get himself back under control. It better not be another email from that damn Year 11 girl's mother about discrimination because of her tights. He would not be responsible for his response to _that_.

 **R Smith - FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge**

He almost dropped his baguette. Then, when the roaring in his ears and the pounding of his heart allowed, he clicked on the email.

* * *

 _A/N: Apologies for missing last week's update. Like Rey at the UCAS deadline, I was snowed under with exam marking. FFNet is a terrible website which won't even let me write an email address properly. I strongly suggest you move over to reading this on AO3. You can leave reviews there even if you're a guest. It's the same title and pen name. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited or followed here so far._

 _Oxbridge - shorthand for Oxford and Cambridge, Britain's most prestigious universities. Equivalent of the Ivy League. Deadlines for applying to them are earlier than other application deadlines, in mid October rather than mid January. The early deadline also applies to medicine and vet med applications._  
 _Personal Statement - the part of a university application where the student writes about themself and why they want to study their course._  
 _UCAS - acronym for the university admissions process. Rey as a subject teacher will be helping students applying for Physics with their UCAS form and may be helping her head of department write references for them. Kylo as headteacher will have to sign off on all references (if not write them all depending on the school's policy) and be the final checker of every application._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Seven**

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Mrs. Smith,

I have forwarded your email to Mr. Harrison, our Head of Physics and you will be hearing from him shortly.

I appreciate your insight into the workings of my school and its failings so much. Please do email again if you have any further suggestions.

Best wishes,  
Kylo Ren (Mr.)

Headmaster

When Rey had said she hoped she would be hearing from Mr. Ren very shortly, she had not expected a reply to land in her inbox within fifteen minutes, just as the bell went and she was grabbing her bag for afternoon registration.

She scanned the reply, her eyes widening as she did so. She even had to do a double take to read it again, instead of just glancing at it on her way out of the office.

"Unbelievable! Rose, he's trolling me!"

But Rose wasn't in the room and she was speaking to herself. She went off to teach her afternoon lessons in a distracted state.

* * *

"Get me Hux!"

"Mr. Hux is teaching Year 12, sir."

Kylo glared at his PA. "Well, get him to me the moment he finishes."

It had been a rotten day so far but thanks to Rey Smith (Miss)'s email, he had been provided with the perfect excuse to use Hux as his personal punching bag, which always had an uplifting effect.

He slammed the door to his office again and flung himself into his chair to wait for a reply from Rey. She would reply, he knew she would. She would not be able to resist the provocation.

By the time the next double period had ended, there was still no reply. She must be teaching, Kylo thought gloomily. In the five minutes between lessons, Hux appeared at Kylo's door in a sulk.

"What is it, Ren? You know I have double Year 9 last thing on a Friday. Much as I'd enjoy not having to deal with them at this point, if I'm late they may all have jumped out of the window to shoot up in the park."

For once, Kylo resisted the temptation to make a jibe about most people wanting to jump out of a window when faced with the prospect of spending over an hour in a small room with Hux. He slammed a print-out of Rey's email on his desk in front of his assistant.

"Explain to me why I received this email."

Hux picked up the paper and held it at a distance between finger and thumb. An expression of distaste crossed his face.

"Oh yes, I remember this. Did I not deal with it? I'm sorry, Kylo, it must have got lost in my inbox."

"Twice?" He wanted to rub Hux's indifferent insincerity off his stupid face.

"What can I say? I have many demands on my time."

"Piss off, Hux. You're only an Assistant Head. And sort out the website. It's bloody humiliating getting emails like this from some junior teacher at Alderaan Grammar School."

"What are you going to do about it? Report me to Snoke?" Hux sneered. "Because you got shown up by a nobody from Alderaan Grammar?"

Kylo stood up. " _We_ got shown up. Get the _fuck_ out of my office." He was suddenly very tired. He picked up his stress ball and flung it in the direction of Hux's head. It bounced off the wall near the door, making a photograph of the previous year's leavers tremble on its nail.

Hux dodged the ball and sidled out of the door, shooting the headmaster a look of disgust, which Kylo felt all the way to bones.

Hux was ruthlessly efficient in so many matters, he reflected once he had calmed down, but at what cost! He was such an asshole. The only reason his students got good marks in his classes was because they were too terrified of failing. He was the sort of person who became a teacher for the power and that was a bad reason if ever there was one. For several minutes Kylo fantasised about what he would do if he had full control over Starkiller's staffing instead of having his every decision having to be approved by Snoke. Then the bell went again and he grabbed his copy of _Rebecca_ and stalked off to teach Year 13, hoping that there would be an email in his inbox when he returned. Woe betide anyone who had not done their homework that afternoon.

When he returned to his office after tearing into an annoying student who thought he was being original and was just being pretentious, he was delighted to see an email from R Smith in his inbox among other administrative dross.

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Kyle O'Ren,

Thank you so much for your reassurances and for forwarding my message to Mr. Harrison.

You are particularly generous in inviting me to make suggestions on how to improve Starkiller Academy. What an honour! I will definitely take you up on this, but I will need some time to gather my thoughts, for the list might be a long one.

I do hope you have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,  
Rey Smith (Miss)  
Teacher of Physics, Alderaan Grammar School

"And no more emails till Monday!" thought Rey as she closed Outlook and switched off her laptop.

She kept to her resolve, made at the start of the year, not to check her work emails during the weekend, but for the first time that term, her fingers itched to log in and see if Mr. Ren had replied. Why she was so curious, she could not quite say. Except that he had thrown down a challenge that she was utterly unable to back down from, professionalism be damned.

 _Friday evening_

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Ms Smith,

Thank you for your email.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions. We will naturally adopt all of them immediately.

I hope you also have a good weekend.

Best wishes,  
Kylo Ren  
Headmaster

 _Sunday morning_

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.

Kylo Ren

 _Monday_

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Kylie Ron,

So headteachers don't have lives at the weekend? I knew it!

Here's a preliminary suggestion - get a new motto that doesn't sound like a Nazi slogan.

Kind regards,  
Rey Smith (Miss)

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Mr. Smith,

The motto was Lord Snoke's decision. You should probably take it up with him. Surely it is more inspiring than yours though - _non ignorantia sed scientia_. What a nothing phrase.

Has Mr. Harrison contacted you?

Best wishes,  
Kylo Ren

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Kale Rice,

Yes, Mr. Harrison emailed me this morning and I have been able to continue with my planning.

If I ever see Lord Snoke, you can be sure I will take it up with him.

Kind regards,  
Rey Smith (Miss)

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Rev. Smith,

So one of my staff is competent! This is a great relief.

I hope everything is going to plan. Let me know if I can be of any help.

Best wishes,  
Kylo Ren

 _Tuesday_

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Crylo Rain,

Here's another suggestion - hire more competent staff, then you won't be surprised when one of them actually does their job.

Kind regards,  
Rey Smith (MISS)

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Lady Rey,

Suggestion noted - but something else you will need to take up with Lord Snoke.

Why are you so obsessed with your title? Are you desperately broadcasting your single status in a last ditch attempt to get a husband like a secondary character in an Austen novel?

Kylo

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Do you even have work to do as headmaster? Snoke decides everything and you just sit around sending unprofessional emails at all hours of the day.

I'm not obsessed with my title - but if I don't put it in my signature then nobody knows what to call me. It's all right for men.

Rey

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

You could always use Ms…?

Apologies for the delay in replying. I was teaching a lesson. One of the many aspects of a headmaster's job.

Kylo

 _Wednesday_

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Teaching a lesson! In a school! Quick! Call the press! This is unheard of!

Calling myself Ms wouldn't make it any easier for people to know what title to use in an email. And I was born a Miss. I don't see why I should ever have to change my title, even to Ms.

Rey

 _Thursday_

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Rey,

I was at a headteacher's conference yesterday. I was wondering - what would you change about your school?

Kylo

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

I would move the music department to the furthest end of the school site so I don't have to hear them rehearsing for the school musical all. the. damn. time. when I'm trying to work in the office.

Apart from that, we're perfect.

Rey

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

You're not a fan of musicals? What a shame. Nevertheless, I think you'd appreciate this song from Starkiller's latest musical.

Kylo

Rey clicked on the link automatically and burst out laughing as she saw what it was.

 _It's astounding  
_ _Time is fleeting  
_ _Madness takes its toll  
_ _But listen closely...  
_ _(Not for very much longer)  
_ _I've got to keep control_

Then the percussion came in and the volume suddenly rose. She clapped her hand over her mouth as _I remember doing the Time Warp_ blared out through the Physics office and through the open door into Physics Lab 1 where twenty four students were engaged in Science Club. They all looked up and Rey's two colleagues who were running the club turned around and stared at her through the glass window separating the office from the lab. JJ gave her a look that said _What the fuck_ as loudly as any words, while Rian gave her a double thumbs up from the back of the room.

She quickly muted her laptop, her face flaming with embarrassment.

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

THANKS FOR MAKING ME PLAY THAT IN PUBLIC. YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PERSON.

You actually did The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a school musical? I don't know whether to be horrified or impressed.

I don't mind musicals really. I'd just prefer not to hear them being rehearsed by teenagers every lunchtime. Anyway, here's my favourite song from this year's AGS musical. I think you will really like it.

Rey

Kylo should have known not to be so gullible when he clicked on the link, especially after sending her the Time Warp as a joke.

Still, he clicked the link and groaned as Rick Astley's gurning face appeared in front of him and familiar music came out of his tinny speakers, just as Phasma opened the door. Her eyebrows rose.

"Aww, you've been rickrolled! Who's never gonna give you up, Kylo, do tell!"

He closed the tab and glared at her. "A friend. What is it?"

"Just got that folder you were asking about earlier." She handed it over and turned away again. Her hand on the door, she turned back and said mischievously, "I didn't know you had a friend! Congratulations on that! You're making real strides in normal human interaction."

"Phasma!"

She ducked out before he could throw anything at her.

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Very amusing, Rey. I think your musical will be a great success.

Kylo

 _Friday_

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Oh, it will be. The cast is very talented. All I wish is that I didn't need to hear every track fifty times over.

I am so glad it is half term tomorrow. Yesterday was hell. Are you going away?

Rey

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

What happened?

Kylo

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

I had to see parents. One of my tutor group is causing trouble and we had to call in their parents and, well, I guess you can see why he is like the way he is when you meet his mother and father. Very difficult. And I had to miss hockey training with my team to make the meeting after school.

I guess I just need a holiday.

Rey

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Parents are the worst part of the job. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. They think they know what's best for their child but really they're just projecting their own neuroses without thinking about what they really needs. Often they don't know their own child at all.

I'm sure you did wonderfully. If you need any tips for dealing with them though, just ask. I've been doing this for longer than you.

Kylo

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Bitter much, Mr. Ren?

Thank you for the vote of confidence and the offer of support, though I really have everything I need here. My Head of Year is very supportive. And in a few hours I won't need to see any of them for a week!

Rey

 **From:** headmaster  
 **To:** rsmith  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Congratulations on surviving your first half term at Alderaan Grammar School! Do you have any plans for half term? I was wondering, if you are around in Alderaan and not going away, would you like to get a drink sometime over the week? I have, unexpectedly, very much enjoyed our correspondence this week.

Kylo

Rey sat back at her laptop, trying to put as much distance between herself and it. School was over and the pub with Finn, Rose, Poe and others was beckoning but she had one last email to send before she could join them and celebrate the end of the first half term of teaching.

Was Kylo Ren, headmaster of Starkiller Academy, asking her out on a _date_?

She supposed she oughtn't to be surprised. What did she think was going on, emailing a strange guy several times a day about things only tangentially related to the supposed subject of the email? Of course a man would take it to be flirting. Would assume she was interested in him. But she hadn't been… had she? She didn't even know what he looked like! He didn't know what she looked like either, for that matter; he just assumed she was young and inexperienced. (She was, but it was annoying he assumed it. Did her emails somehow suggest naivety? She didn't think so.) It was ludicrous the idea of him asking her out. If anything, he was adopting a mentor-like role towards her. He had to be quite a bit older than her to be a headmaster after all, though she recalled Finn having once said that he was young for a headteacher. Still, 'young for a headteacher' probably meant at least forty and that would make him fifteen to twenty years older than her. He didn't come across as a forty year old in his emails though, not that she really knew what forty year old men sounded like. Poe was rising forty, she believed, and he was not old and stuffy at all.

More pertinently, of course, was the fact that Kylo Ren was the _headmaster_ of _Starkiller Academy_. Even if he turned out to be impossibly young and handsome, the idea of going out with him was ridiculous. If he'd just been a teacher then that might have been one thing, but the headmaster? He was responsible for too much.

Besides, Rey didn't go on dates. She didn't have relationships. It was not a thing she did and it was better this way, no matter how much she might be tempted. Not that she was tempted in this case. So he was amusing to email and an oddly comforting presence in her inbox? So she found the fact that he could match her idiosyncrasies on every level charming even when he was insulting her? It didn't _mean_ anything. And actually, this was a good wake-up call. It was typical that a man should take their casual banter as something more than it was. She needed to snap out of it and concentrate on her work and her real life friends. This was just a distraction which she definitely didn't need when she was still in the early days of her new job.

And she had never been so glad that she and Finn were going to Takodana for the week, meaning she did not even have to lie to him.

 **From:** rsmith  
 **To:** headmaster  
 **Subject:** FW: Re: Aldershire Junior Physics Challenge

Dear Kylo,

I'm afraid I am actually going away all week to see family so I won't be able to meet you over half term. Perhaps another time.

I hope you have a good half term.

Rey

* * *

 _A/N: FFNet still being stupid and not letting me write email addresses. Ah well!_

 _Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed or favourited so far. You're the best!_

 _ **Double period** \- a lesson twice as long as single lessons. (Period = lesson.) For most schools, double periods are more normal than singles. Could be anything from an hour to two hours (though that would be rare). I think Starkiller's double periods are an hour and ten minutes._  
 _Year 9 - 13-14 year olds (8th grade). Generally every teacher's worst class. LOL Hux getting them last thing on a Friday, especially when he designs the timetables... SUCKER, he played himself!_  
 _ **Rey's title** \- a frustration I feel very much myself; I am constantly given the wrong title in professional emails because nobody knows and unlike Rey, I don't stick it officiously in my signature. I get the impression though I may be wrong that in the US female teachers are called "Ms" automatically, but that's very much not the case here._  
 _ **Tutor group** \- class of students in one year grouped together for pastoral and administrative purposes including registration and PSHCE (personal, social, health and citizenship education). They may or may not have their lessons together. Each tutor group has a form tutor who is responsible for their pastoral well-being and behaviour._  
 _ **Head of Year** \- teacher overall in charge of pastoral concerns and discipline of the students in a year group. The form tutor's direct line manager and there to support with difficult or more serious situations._  
 _ **Half term** \- either refers to literally half a term of teaching (five to ten weeks depending on the time of year) or to the week long holiday in the middle of each term. Not as confusing as it sounds. The half term holiday Kylo is referring to is the last week of October splitting up the term that runs from the beginning of September to just before Christmas. The longest and most draining term of the year._


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